Starlight
by Placebox
Summary: The world as we know it has already lived and died, but the detritus remains. Finn and Jake find themselves forced to brave the wilds that remain and discover the secrets of the past in order to prevent the second doomsday.
1. Still

Starlight

A Story

By: Placebox

* * *

Chapter 1: Still

* * *

Deep below the earth, in a small, well hidden room sat ensconced in concrete. A single display flickered through numbers. If someone had been near they could have identified it as a countdown. As it was, there was not a human for hundreds of miles.

0:14

0:13

Two hundred feet overhead the underground bunker, the grass shuddered slightly with the light breeze. The only illumination came from the stars, cold and hard in the night sky.

0:12

Above the horizon, a single star started to fall.

0:11

Slowly at first it dropped. So slowly you wouldn't have noticed it without knowing exactly where it was.

0:10

The star was falling faster now, and as if it had realized it was late, a second star started its slow descent beside the first.

0:09

Now a third and a fourth started to fall.

0:08

A fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth…

0:07

To many to count.

0:06

Now the entire sky seemed to be rotating. The stars now moved in unison, speeding up as they converged toward the horizon. The twinkling from the stars grew more erratic.

0:05

0:04

The silence was deafening.

0:03

0:02

0:01

In unison the missiles hit the atmosphere.

0:00

In an eruption of light, the Great War was over. And nobody was left to care.

A New Sun rose under the starless sky.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay! Wanted to get the first chapter out nice and early. Hopefully seeing it online will give me more motivation to complete it. The first chapter was short, expect longer ones in the future.

And yes, I know this doesn't seem to have anything to do with Adventure Time. Next chapter will, I promise. 'Till next time!


	2. Morning

Chapter 2: Morning

The sun beams pierced through the lightly shuffling veil of leaves and branches, ending their ninety-two million mile trip on the closed eyelids of a sleeping boy. He squirmed in his patchwork of quilts, trying to remove his eyes from the dazzling rays of light, but each time he shifted position, the leaves would sway and the sun would catch him again. With a sigh of resignation, Finn rolled out of the blankets and placed his feet on the floor. The wood was worn smooth and soft from years of wear, and felt comfortingly warm beneath his feet. With his eyes beginning to adjust to the light, Finn glanced around the interior of the tree that was his home.

A rough assemblage of planks, branches, and driftwood made up the walls of the room. While it was true that the exterior of the tree provided solid enough protection, this second layer that Finn and Jake had placed on the interior of the tree provided a surface that was not saturated with sap. It gave the interior a warm and inviting atmosphere that Finn never tired of looking at.

Finn turned his attention upward, toward the ceiling, or rather, the lack thereof. There was a small framework of boards that Finn and Jake had nailed up years ago to keep the branches from entering the interior, but otherwise the only thing that separated the room and the sky was a thick canopy of leaves. This lack of a roof might have been a detriment in harsher weather, but the sturdy branches and leaves kept out the vast majority of water, snow, and occasionally knives from all but the most calamitous of storms.

He looked again to his left at the dresser pressed against the wall. Clothes lay thrown across the drawers and halfway out, as if they were trying to crawl out of bed as well. Unsurprisingly, the bottom drawer, where Jake slept was empty. Jake almost always woke ahead of Finn, and as if to confirm the thought, the smells of coffee rose from the floorboards.

Finn rolled out of bed and pulled on his hat, taking a few moments to tuck back his long golden hair. He noticed his hat was getting tight again, which probably meant it was about time to go find a new one. It was a rare event that he needed to replace his hat, but an important one. He had gone through four hats in the past, not counting his original baby hat, and had to fetch a new one around every four or five years. He was.. 19 years old? 20? He hadn't kept close track. There was really no reason. But BMO insisted on placing it on his calendar every year, so Finn let the little robot keep track.

Unfortunately, the only place to find a replacement hat was in the depths of Beautopia.

The pilgrimage to replace it was an uncomfortable and unpleasant one, but Finn couldn't help but insist on taking it. He didn't enjoy it, yet it had become something of a regular event for him. He couldn't quite explain why. Sure the thrill of traipsing through the immeasurable passageways was somewhat of an attraction, but Finn could help but feel anxious at entering the city. Anxious in a way that other, more dangerous escapades had never matched. He knew he couldn't articulate it in words, what he felt when he passed through the gates of the city, but he could best describe it as… sadness? Not exactly sadness, there was more… loss? Almost like he had misplaced something and forgotten about it. The feeling pulled him in two directions, one side of him demanding to venture deeper into the city, the other half wanting to flee and never come back.

Yet back he came, and back he would go. He felt he might always make the journey, hoping to find what he was missing, before the nameless, uncomfortable feelings drove him back to the surface. He hadn't yet found what he was looking for, but at least he would get a new hat for his trouble.

"Hey dude!"

Jake's shout roused Finn from his reverie.

"You coming down sometime this year? I made us bacon and eggs…"

"Yeah man, I'm coming." said Finn. "I was just checking out my hat. It's getting kinda small again."

Jake rolled his eyes, and smirked at Finn.

"Oh ho, great. I know what this means. You wanna go down into that sewer again and fetch a new one! You should have just listened to me last time and brought like fifty of 'em up with you. But noooooo…" Jake warbled. "You only took one, and now we have to back down to that creepy place."

"Come on… isn't it at least kind of… uh… fun?" Finn pressed.

He debated for the millionth time whether to explain the bizarre feelings that he got when he entered Beautopia, but like all the times before, decided it was more trouble than it was worth. 'Heck', he thought to himself. 'I'm not even sure whether they're real or not.' Jake would complain, but he also knew that Jake knew this was important to him.

"Not mu definition of fun. But I'll do it for your hat. S'long as we avoid the Glub Glubs or whatever! They still give me nightmares man." Jake punctuated his remark with a shiver.

"Thanks dude, now let's get some breakfast."

"Psssh," Jake made a raspberry "Finally."

They climbed down the ladder into the kitchen, or rather, Finn climbed and Jake stretched, his head and body lengthening to reach the floor followed by the rest of him a few seconds later. The room was highlighted with the sharp reflections of the morning sun, still low enough that it cast a brilliant light through the windows.

BMO was sitting at his usual spot at the table, his chair stacked with various books and a bucket so his stubby frame could reach the table. He turned as they entered.

"Good morning Finn! How did you sleep last night?" the small robot was never lacking his cheery disposition.

"Oh, pretty good, thanks BMO. And you?" Finn inquired. He knew BMO didn't really sleep, Bubblegum had called it 'hibernation', but he knew BMO liked it when he asked.

"I slept good Finn. I had a dream about you and Jake!" BMO waved his arms in excitement.

Finn didn't think the little robot even could dream, but he smiled and let the it continue.

"I got superpowers and lifted trees and saved people and could fly! You guys were bank robbers and…"

That sounded familiar. Finn recalled the movie they had watched a few nights ago.

"Wow, that's pretty exciting," Finn smiled. "You have some pretty exciting dreams. Oh and don't forget to eject that movie we watched last week."

Finn was glad BMO didn't seem to make the connection. BMO tried so hard to be like him and Jake. It sometimes worried Finn. It seemed he was always catching the BMO trying to drink water, brush its teeth, even use the bathroom. If BMO could distinguish its own lack of faculty in these areas, it didn't show it. And it seemed to make it happy when Finn recognized it, so he humored the robot.

BMO continued with a synopsis of the superhero movie for a few more seconds when the table buzzed. It was Finn's phone. He took another bite of eggs and checked the screen. It was Bubblegum. Finn let BMO continue to chatter as he flipped open the phone.

"Hey PB," he said, trying to sound casual. He cringed, was his tone too casual? Maybe he should have sounded a little more interested. He bit his lip and tried to think of what that would sound like. He was interrupted by Princess Bubblegum's voice.

"Morning Finn. I hope I didn't wake you."

"Nope, just having some breakfast."

"Great," continued Bubblegum. "Can you come by the Candy Kingdom today? I've got some important things to talk with you guys about."

"Sure thing, PB. Me and Jake were just wondering what to do today."

"Good! Just come by anytime this afternoon, okay? See you then."

"Roger that." Finn said as he hung up the phone. "You hear that Jake? PB needs us at the castle today."

"Hehe, roger that buddy," Jake laughed.

With breakfast finished Finn and Jake emerged from the tree into the sunshine, headed for the Candy Kingdom.


End file.
